


Of pirates and good men

by Fataverde



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Beta Wanted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 13:43:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11128083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fataverde/pseuds/Fataverde
Summary: In which Jack's ship gets an upgrade, Barbossa loses his hat and his mind, Gibbs is the reasonable one, Elizabeth struggles with a code and Will is tired of it all. In the background, religious fervor is growing, opportunist tyrants are scheming, a strange illness is spreading, politicians squabble over petty things and goats keep popping up. And it all takes place in space.ORA space pirates AU that is also canon – until AWE and the fateful boat ride over the waterfall.





	Of pirates and good men

She woke with a start, flailing and trying to grab hold of anything before the water swallowed her.  Her stomach felt like it had been plummeting for hours. Through the ringing of her ears she could barely hear a voice yelling “Twas  me hat, ye wretched woman” and a strong arm wrapped around her wrist.

“Will?” she choked out. Except that wasn’t right. Will didn’t sound like a pirate, _hah,_ and she should have hit water by now – or rocks, or something. And where was the wind?

‘Ye best be looking elsewere fer yer lad’ she heard Barbossa grumble nearby. He _sounded_ like he’d fought a losing battle with a waterfall (or several) _._ But that couldn’t be right. They were alive and…. ‘Will’ her mind supplied.  She opened her eyes to chaos – and as if on cue, the buzzing in the background sharpened into groaning.

 In front of her, Ragetti was on all fours, feeling about for his eye, with little success. Somewhere to the side, Wufeng was swinging a gun around wildly and yelling about a “glowing demon”. Cheng was trying to pounce on Wufeng before he did any harm while Shap and many others were moaning in pain and trying to gather their wits about them.

Above them, Cotton’s parrot was flying from side to side, croaking ‘abandon ship, abandon ship’, only to hit an invisible wall of sorts. A wall that seemed to surround them. Her eyes fixated on the almost soothing back and forth of the bird till a shout brought her out of the daze.  

 Cheng seemed to have tripped over a dress (and _why_ did they even have that?). He smacked straight into a Will ( _he’s alive!_ ) that had just regained his footing and together they tumbled on top of Wufeng. Several things seemed to happen at once. Startled, the Chinese pirate pulled the trigger on reflex, just as Will’s hand was knocking his gun down.  Wufeng howled staring at the spot where his toe used to be and Pintel promptly revisited his dinner (and possibly all of last month’s meals) in a..

”Hey, that’s my hat” lamented Elizabeth.

That drove a startled laugh out of Barbossa and an indignant huff out Elizabeth. It did nothing to stop Pintel.

Meanwhile, all the way in the front, Ragetti had finally hit upon his eye. With a triumphant cry he placed it back in the socket and rose – only to come face to face with a slimy blue monstrosity. Transfixed, he studied the lifelike sculpture -hyperrealism, his brain supplied, with the focus of the man that thinks he must be losing his mind. There was a certain iridescence to the skin surface – the color changing as his eye roamed over the long neck, up the short jaw past the non existing nose and into wide bulbous eyes. That blinked. He shrieked.

‘C..c..captain’he managed to eek out as he was scrambling away from that….thing.

Through the practice of many a year aboard a riotous vessel, Barbossa managed to pick out the word ‘captain’ above all the noise. He speared Ragetti with an impatient look.

‘Ye best be seeing..this’. The last word was said with an accompanying flurry of hands in the direction of the blue monster.  Said creature having now cocked it’s head to the side and moving its’…appendages? Yes, that sounded about right, Ragetti thought.  It was moving what looked to be fingers, if monsters be known to possessed any, through a stream of light. And he could have sworn it looked like text of some kind was moving within –as if it was casting a spell or other sort of witchery.

Behind him, the murmur had quieted down, and instead he could hear the sound of many a pistols being cocked.

“What manner of devil be ye, and what de ye want wit me crew”.

Good ‘ol cap’n always knew what to say.

The blue witch – for what else could it be (or maybe a golem?) ignored them in favor of moving his (non) fingers in the light.

Many a nights under Barbossa’s leadership had taught the men to quickly discern their captain’s disposition. Ragetti could feel his impatience rising. Just as Barbossa was getting ready to speak again, and the poppet to interject, blessed little meddler that she was, a fizzing sound started from above. All eyes went to the sky where a small floating black box started moving.

Within a span of seconds no one was left upright. Even the parrot lay still, on the ground, sleeping.


End file.
